Oil exploration firm Tullow Oil has announced that its Ten project in Ghana is over 90% complete. The firm says the first oil remains on target for July and August this year.
Tullow Ghana Limited Managing Director, Charles Darku revealed that, mooring operations have been complete and the vessel are being connected to the subsea infrastructure, via the risers and umbilical. Seconding Mr. Darku statement is FPSO Professor John Atta Mills who sailed from Singapore on January 23, 2016, and docked in the Ghanaian waters on March 2, 2016, confirming the project’s readiness to drill its first oil.
Professor Atta Mills added that, preparations for the commissioning of the systems are underway, in fact, Tullow estimates that TEN average annualized productions in 2016 will be around 23,000 barrels daily (bpd) as previously guided. “This is as a result of the mid-year start-up in the second half.”
Nonetheless, the TEN project drives increased in local content particularly in the Company’s first capital injection for contracts to provide specialised services such as marine operations and logistics, civil engineering and construction, fabrication and construction increased from US$123.6m in 2014 to US$226m in 2015.
Regardless of the external circumstances, the oil company has strongly been positioned to balance its accounts and operate the TEN project as schedule. Tullow Oil PLC’s fifth annual investor forum held in Accra aimed at  presenting the company’s shareholders in Ghana, its performance of the past year and outlook for the year ahead, and touching on the Jubilee Field where FPSO Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana’s first FPSO, is undergoing some repairs and maintenance works.
In 2015, the field has however, strongly performed with an average gross production of 103,000 bpd. Compared with the 2016 first quarter’s production, it has been recorded to be below expectation, and that, it has linked to increased downtime following a problem identified with the FPSO turret bearing. However, experienced project team is working tirelessly investigating the turret bearing and identified engineered solution.
Besides being a leading independent oil and gas, exploration and production group, Tullow Oil PLC, has also been quoted on the London, Irish and Ghanaian stock exchanges. The Group is also interested in over 130 exploration and production licences across 22 countries which are managed as three regional business units, which are West and North Africa, South and East Africa as well as Europe, South America and Asia.
